Heater assembly



Dec. 23, 1969 E. F. cox

HEATER ASSEMBLY Filed Sept. 11, 1967 ATTORNEY United States Patent l3,486,003 HEATER ASSEMBLY Ernest Francis Cox, Ryd-e, Isle of Wight,England, as-

signor to Ronsou Corporation, Woodbridge, N.J., a corporation of NewJersey Filed Sept. 11, 1967, Ser. No. 666,819

Claims priority, application Australia, May 2, 1967,

Int. Cl. H05b 1/00 US. Cl. 219-375 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF DISCLOSUREHeaters comprising wire filaments wrapped around a core of insulatingmaterial have been used in hair dryers, however, such heaters have notproved efiicient.

Other heater units have been suggested which use a length of coiledresistance wire which is arranged about a set of insulating supports toprovide a staggered array of elements extending across the path of theair flow. The assembly of such a heater is tedious and requires a greatdeal of time. The winding of such heating elements does not lend itselfreadily to a machine operation and generally must be accomplished byhand. The latter assembly is difiicult to repair in the event thecontinuous length of filament is broken or burned because the entireassembly must be rewired at considerable expense.

The present invention seeks to overcome the aforementioned disadvantagesof the prior art heaters by utilizing individual heating elements whichare joined together in a novel assembly.

The improved heater unit comprises two members formed of electrical andthermal insulating material. Each member has a base portion and opposedupstanding walls thereon. The walls on one member include spaced apartgrooves which are designed to receive therein mating tongues on theother member. When the mating portions are joined they form an enclosurewhich is Open on two sides.

A plurality of heating elements are placed within the enclosure and aresupported on the upstanding walls by means of electrical connectors. Theconnector frictionally engage the upstanding walls in each of thegrooves on the walls and are firmly clamped therein when the upperhousing member having tongues on the side walls is mated with the lowerhousing member. Thus, there is formed an enclosure for the heatingelements which has proved of high efiiciency, because the air flowcontacts the heating coils in a confined space.

Each heating coil is separately wound and if a coil goes bad it isquickly and simply replaced with a new wound unit.

FIG. 1 is an exploded view showing the elements in perspective;

FIG. 2 is an assembly showing the parts in assembled relationship; and

FIG. 3 is a view showing the details of the electrical connector.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a heater assembly comprising a lowerhousing portion 10 and an upper housing portion 11.

3,486,003 Patented Dec. 23, 1969 The lower housing portion comprises abase 12. Fixed to the base 12 are upstanding walls 14 and 15. The wallshave tongues 16 formed thereon which are separated by grooves. Each ofthe tongues 16 has a depression 17 formed therein which will be fullydescribed below.

The upper housing portion 11 also comprises a base 18 to which are fixeddepending walls 19 and 20 having tongues 21 thereon. A forward wall 22is attached to the base 18 and a rear wall 23 bounds the rear portion ofthe base 18. The rear wall has a notch 24 therein which is fullydescribed below.

The upper housing portion 11 and the lower housing portion are formed ofelectrical and thermal insulating materials such as a ceramic orBakelite. The tongues 21 on the upper housing 11 are formed to fit inthe grooves between the tongues 16 on the lower housing 10. A smallspace exists between the extremity of each tongue 16 and 21 and thegroove within which it rests forming the depression 17.

Placed within each depression 17 is a heating element denoted generallyby numeral 25. The number of heating elements used is a matter ofchoice. I have found five to be satisfactory. The heating elements eachcomprise a ceramic element 26 which can have any cross-sectionalconfiguration. Wrapped around each ceramic element 26 is a resistiveheater wire 27. A terminal 28 is fixed to each end of the element 26 andto the wire 27 by any known attaching means. The terminal includes aninner U-shaped clip portion 29 and an outer U-shaped connector portion30.

Each U-shaped clip 29 is supported by the upstanding walls 14 and 15 onthe lower housing 10 by placing the clip 29 within each depression 17such that the U-shaped clip straddles the wall whereby the bight of theU-shaped clip 29 fits within the confines of the depression 17. Thedepth of the depression 17 equals the thickness of the terminal 18. Theupper housing 11 is placed over the lower housing 10 by placing eachtongue 21 within a groove between the tongues 16 on the lower housing10. Each ceramic element 26 is spaced one from the other and is confinedwithin a housing comprising the upper and lower portions 10 and 11. Thehousing is open on two sides for the reception and exit of air. A knownthermal cutout 31 can be placed in the heating circuit if desired andheld in place such as by screws.

A portion 32 of the base 18 is cut away for the reception of a clamp 34which has an end resting in the portion 32, the notch 24, and an endwhich fits snugly on the bottom of the base portion 12. The upper andlower housing sections 10 and 11 are thereby tightly held together, butcan be easily separated in the event repair or replacement of parts mustbe made.

The terminals 28 of the heating elements 26 are outside the walls 14,15, 19 and 20. A connecting wire 33 is placed over the terminals 28 suchas to connect the heating elements 26 in series or in parallel with orwithout the thermal cut-out 31, as desired, by appropriate connections.

If desired, one or more of the heating elements may be dimensioned as avoltage dropping resistor for sup plying current to a rectifier feedinga low voltage DC motor for driving a blower to force air through thepassageway between the walls 14, 15-, 19 and 20 of the upper and lowerhousings 11 and 10.

I have thereby disclosed a compact heater assembly which can be easilydisassembled for repair or replacement of parts by simply removing theclamp 34. The heaters 26 themselves are maintained separated andconfined in a housing which is open on tWo sides. Air forced into thehousing by a known blower unit is thus confined between the walls andthe molecules of air having been brought in such close proximity arereadily heated and passed into a hose and thence into a hair drying hoodworn on the users head.

It is to be understood that the aforementioned description of anembodiment of my invention is for illustrative purposes only. The truescope of my invention is to be measured by the claims included hereinwhich are meant to encompass all reasonable equivalents of my invention.

I claim:

1. In a heater assembly for a hairdryer comprising (a) a lower housingportion having spaced upstanding walls thereon, said upstanding wallshaving at least one indentation on each of said spaced upstanding'walls, I,

(b) an upper housing portion having spaced upstanding walls thereonwhich mate with the walls on said lower housing portion to form an openenclosure adapted to receive air forced therethrough,

(c) at least one heating element within the open enclosure,

(d) electrical terminal means secured to the heating element andconstituting a support for said heating element and being supported onsaid spaced upstanding walls of the lower housing in said indentations,whereby air which is forced through said enclosure will contact theheating element.

2. In a heater assembly for a hairdryer as defined in claim 1 in whichthe Walls forming said upper and lower housing portions are in the formof complimentary tongue and groove members which interfit to form saidupstanding walls.

3. A heater assembly as defined in claim 2 in which said tongue andgrooves have said indentations formed References Cited UNITED STATESPATENTS 1,324,994 12/1919 Benjamin 17492 X 1,561,814 11/1925 Aske 3383152,225,592 12/1940 MacFadden 29453 X 2,261,496 11/1941 Happe et al.219-463 2,294,322 8/1942 Van der Woude.

2,856,229 10/1958 Adell 29-453 X 2,917,616 12/1959 Thomson 219-347 X3,095,496 6/1963 Omohundro a 3499 X 3,298,111 1/1967 Parr 719-374 XJOSEPH V. TRUHE, Primary Examiner P. W. GOWDEY, Assistant Examiner U.S.C1. X.R.

